Introduction

 
3% of survey complete.
Dear sir, madam,

We would like to invite you to participate in an online survey regarding the breeding results of Amazon parrots in captivity. To participate in this survey you need to: 

- Breed Amazon parrots.

- Be at least eighteen years of age, or have permission of your parent or guardian to participate in this survey

With this survey, we hope to collect information from breeders of Amazon parrots across the world. In this survey you will be questioned about various aspects of your breeding pairs as well as their living conditions (housing, environment, nutrition), behavior and breeding results.

The survey is part of a study to explore the sex ratio (ratio between males and females) within offspring of Amazon parrots. Results from previous studies in other parrot species (including Eclectus parrots and the Kakapo) have revealed that, in both captivity and the wild, certain environmental conditions may cause an inequality in sex ratio of the offspring. Should the results of this exploratory study indicate that the ratio between male and female offspring significantly differs from 50:50 (equal sex distribution), further research will be conducted into the factors that may be influencing this sex ratio.

This survey is conducted by students from Animal Health and Management, University of Applied Sciences CAH, located in Dronten (The Netherlands), under supervision of researchers from the Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals (Division of Zoological Medicine) and the Department of Animals in Science and Society of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

The results of this study will help us gain further insight in the sex distribution of offspring of Amazon parrots, and any potential biases therein. We would therefore very much appreciate your input and time.

Participation in this survey is 100% anonymous. We will not ask you any personal information, unless you are willing to participate in further research. If you are interested in participating in further research, you will be asked to provide additional details at the end of this survey, so that we are able to contact you in future. All of your information will furthermore be kept confidential: none of the individual responses you provide will be made publically available.

If you are using a public computer, you are advised to take the following precautions to ensure that your information is kept confidential:

1.       Clear the browsing history
2.       Clear the cache
3.       Clear the cookies
4.       Clear the authenticated session
5.       LOG OFF

The survey consists of around 80 multiple-choice and open questions. Completing the survey will take approximately 30-45 minutes of your time. Since your participation in this survey is voluntary, you may choose to withdraw at any given time while completing this survey. You furthermore have the opportunity to skip answering one or multiple questions should you prefer not to answer these.

Should you encounter any difficulties or technical problems while filling out our survey, or should you have any other questions related to this survey, you may always contact us via the e-mail address given below:

parrot.research@outlook.com

On behalf of our supervisors, we thank you very much for your time and willingness to participate in this survey!

Anita Baaij and Jos Kater

Supervisors:

Dr. Goerlich-Jansson, PhD; University of Utrecht

Dr. Schoemaker, DVM, PhD, Dip. ECZM (Small mammal, Avian), Dip. ABVP-Avian; University of Utrecht

Dr. van Zeeland, DVM, MVR, PhD, Dip. ECZM (Avian, Small mammal); University of Utrecht

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